Editorial
Daily Press, Freedom Communications
May 4, 2004
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker should move quickly to conduct a thorough investigation of alleged corruption in the United Nations’ oil-for-food program in Iraq.

Some have dubbed it the “oil for palaces” program because Saddam Hussein is thought to have raked off billions in revenue that was supposed to address Iraq’s humanitarian needs.

Volcker already has shown he was an excellent choice to lead the three-member panel.

He refused to take the job until the U.N. Security Council adopted a formal resolution endorsing the investigation and urged cooperation by all member countries. The resolution was approved on Wednesday, despite initial resistance from Russia and France – the same countries, interestingly enough, that sought to protect Hussein’s regime right up until it was toppled last year.

Other panel members are Mark Pieth of Switzerland, a money-laundering expert, and Richard Goldstone of South Africa, who helped prosecute war crimes before international tribunals dealing with Rwanda and Yugoslavia.

Many key players on Iraq are promising assistance. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said EU members will cooperate. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he and his staff will cooperate, as will Benon Sevan, the former head of the oil-for-food program.

He’d better: Sevan is among those suspected of receiving illegal allotments of Iraqi oil, which he denies. Such allotments were delivered at artificially low prices. Recipients then sold their oil at higher market prices and pocketed the difference. Other high-level U.N. officials have been implicated, including the secretary-general’s son.

Promises of cooperation can’t ensure a successful outcome, and Volcker’s team won’t have the ability to issue subpoenas to compel testimony. Even so, the wealth of evidence available in Iraq should force many people to explain why they were named in Iraqi documents detailing improper payoffs.

An Iraqi newspaper, citing papers found in the former Iraq Oil Ministry, has published a list of 270 activists, foreign dignitaries and journalists who allegedly received illegal oil allotments.

This week a U.S. House committee heard testimony from Claude Hanks-Drielsma, a consultant hired by the Iraqi Governing Council. He said Hussein used oil-for-food money to buy support for his regime at the United Nations.

In other words, the dictator corrupted a U.N. program and used the money to bribe U.N. officials.

Separate reviews by the Government Accounting Office and the U.S. Treasury already have concluded that the oil-for-food program was corrupted on a massive scale.

Washington should actively back the Volcker panel’s work. A thorough investigation is in the United Nations’ best interests and vital to the future of its many relief programs.

Donors to U.N. humanitarian efforts must be confident their contributions will go to those in need, rather than into the pockets of dictators and their bought-and-paid-for allies.